Lover's Quarrel
by VandyFNP
Summary: Jayne is angry with Kaylee after her carelessness puts the whole crew at risk. Kaylee knows he has a terrible temper. His anger is justified, but how long will it last? One Shot, complete. 5th in series.


Kaylee stood in the middle of an enormous field of wild flowers. She was humming to herself and picking a large bouquet. For some time now she had been trying to decide what to do about Jayne. He was still taking things painfully slow with her physically. Slower than molasses in January, truth be told. She knew he was doing it out of respect for her, but she was a bit tired of being so respected. At least in that particular area. She had been giving serious consideration to the idea of moving things along herself, but she wasn't sure how he would react.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jayne's voice sounded furiously behind her, causing her to jump and drop her flowers.

She turned to face him. The expression on his face was alarming; his blue eyes were as hard as steel. He took her upper arm in a vice-like grip.

"Jayne, you're hurting me!" She protested.

He grabbed her other arm in an equally painful grip and shook her. "Hurting you?" He spat. "Do you know why the captain said not to wander off?"

"Wander off?" She replied, vaguely confused. She look around and realized the rest of the crew were no where in sight. She hadn't realized that she had walked so far. They had landed on an outlying moon to negotiate a new job. As they were about to get off the ship, the captain had warned them all to stick close.

"_Especially you, Little Kaylee, don't go wandering off."_

"No," she answered truthfully.

"There's a group of men of this rock that kidnap women to sell as slaves. The older, uglier ones are sold as house slaves to cook and clean. The younger, prettier ones...well they're sold to perform less savory tasks. You had us all worried sick. The whole crew's been looking for you."

With that, he released one arm, but kept his iron grip on the other as he started walking back towards the ship. He was going so fast Kaylee had to jog to keep up. She stumbled a few times, but didn't dare ask him to slow down. They'd had a few lover's spats before, but he had never been this angry with her. She had simply wanted some fresh air and sunlight. She'd walked off down a little path and then caught the sent of wild flowers. She had followed it to the field where Jayne found her. However, she didn't think admitting that she'd been careless was likely to help her right now.

They had nearly reached the ship when Zoe came jogging up to them from the opposite direction. "Thank God you found her. I'm going to call the others back," she said, taking out her radio.

The captain was returning from yet another direction. He put his hands on his hips and stared at her sternly. "What'd I say about wandering off?"

Jayne marched her straight past them and into the cargo hold without giving her time to respond. Once they were out of ear shot, he turned to her and said, "You get yourself up to your bunk and don't take one step out of it till I get back." Then he turned and stormed out of the ship.

Kaylee ran towards her room, trying to hold back the hot tears that were threatening to fall. Once safely inside, she huddled in the corner of her bed leaning against the wall with her knees tucked up under her chin. She let the tears come and cried until she was all cried out. Jayne had a terrible temper, there was no doubt about that. Still it wasn't the thought of what he was going to say when he got back that bothered her. It was more the fact the he had every right to say it. She had put not only herself, but the rest of the crew in danger. Forcing them to split up and search for her had left them all vulnerable. She hoped that the time it took to finish the negotiations, make it back to the ship, and load the cargo would be enough for most of Jayne's anger to burn out.

_Maybe if I apologize before he gets a chance to speak,_ she thought.

The time seemed to go by slowly and terribly fast all at the same time. Kaylee's dread slowly increased. She felt like a naughty child who had been sent to her room to wait for her father to get home. How long would Jayne stay mad? Would her apology make any difference? What if all this time was only giving him the opportunity to stew and get angrier than ever?

She heard the sound of his heavy footsteps in the corridor and her heart started to pound. He opened the hatch and climbed down without knocking. He turned to look at her, and her apology got stuck in her throat.

"Well, what do have to say for yourself?"

Fresh tears sprang to her eyes. "I'm sorry," she stammered, "you're right to be mad at me. I was childish and I put everyone in danger."

Jayne sighed and walked over to sit beside her on the bed. Her apology seemed to drain his remaining temper. When he looked at her this time his expression had completely changed.

"Don't ever scare me like that again, Kaylee."

He pulled her into his arms and held her so tight she could hardly breathe. They laid back together on her bed and for a long time he simply held her. Neither of them spoke. He tilted her chin up and kissed her passionately. Their kisses and caresses slowly became more heated. Jayne pulled away in his typical fashion.

"Don't stop," Kaylee whispered.

"Are you sure?"

"I've never been more sure about anything."

There it was again, that same intense look he had given her just before kissing her for the very first time.

Afterward, as she lay very relaxed in Jayne's arms, Kaylee reflected quietly. She had never been with anyone like Jayne before. Maybe it was just because he was the first man she had ever really loved, but he'd known exactly how she liked to be touched.

"Jayne."

His eyes fluttered open to look at her.

"Do it again."


End file.
